1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process for production of allyl acetate by reacting oxygen, acetic acid and propylene in the presence of a catalyst.
2. Description of the Related Art
Allyl acetate is an important industrial material used in the production of solvents, pharmaceuticals, agricultural chemicals and allyl alcohol. Also, demands for allyl alcohol as a raw material of various organic chemical products such as 1,4-butanediol, tetrahydrofuran and epichlorohydrinhave recently been increasing. Therefore, a technology for efficiently producing allyl acetate and allyl alcohol has made progress in development.
As a process for producing allyl acetate, a process for reacting oxygen, acetic acid and propylene in the presence of a catalyst is widely known. There are also many reports on a process for producing allyl alcohol by further hydrolyzing the allyl acetate thus obtained.
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. Sho 61-238759 discloses a process for producing allyl alcohol in which oxygen, acetic acid and propylene are reacted in a vapor phase in the presence of a catalyst obtained by depositing metallic palladium and an alkali metal acetate on silica to produce allyl acetate, and then a hydrolysis reaction of allyl acetate is performed in the presence of an acidic ion-exchange resin. Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. Hei 1-199924 discloses a process for producing allyl acetate and allyl alcohol, and the literature describes that, in the case of producing allyl acetate, a raw material usage rate upon production of allyl acetate is improved by adjusting the concentration of allyl alcohol in a reaction raw material gas to 100 ppm or less.
As described above, various proposals have been made regarding the process for producing allyl acetate and allyl alcohol. However, these processes do still not have sufficient industrial productivity and, particularly, activity, selectivity and lifetime of a catalyst used in the case of producing allyl acetate by a reaction of oxygen, acetic acid and propylene may often be problematic.
In light of the above circumstances, some proposals have recently been made so as to solve these problems associated with an allyl acetate production catalyst and a process for producing allyl acetate.
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. 2001-79400 discloses that a catalyst containing metallic palladium as a main catalyst, and tin and alkaline metals or alkaline earth metal compounds as co-catalyst components, supported on a carrier, has activity and also maintains high catalytic activity and catalyst selectivity.
However, according to the present inventors' study, it has become apparent that a decrease in activity is recognized in the catalyst disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. 2001-79400 and, particularly, the catalyst drastically deteriorates when the unreacted acetic acid is recovered and recycled in the reaction, and thus there is a limitation in terms of industrial utilization.